Museum Tower responds to concerns of art museum directors in stalemate with Nasher

We filed this blog post last night about the Association of Art Museum Directors issuing a sharply worded statement about the impasse between the Nasher Sculpture Center and its 42-story neighbor, Museum Tower. The AAMD released its statement via Twitter on Tuesday.

Just got this response from Rebecca Shaw, who’s the spokeswoman for the owners of Museum Tower, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System:

“Museum Tower has put together an outstanding team of architects, engineers, and experts in construction, materials, and photonics to address the reflected light issue with the Nasher Sculpture Center. Museum Tower has spent nearly $1 million studying more than 20 ideas for a solution. It’s an extremely complicated issue, and there are no easy ‘ready-made’ solutions. We are continuing to work hard to research and test the most promising ideas for both properties. Museum Tower’s owners and management are committed to finding a solution, and has publicly stated that it will pay for reasonable remediation costs.”

The AAMD, which recently held its annual convention, said this in its statement:

“The Nasher has publicly noted that under the current situation, the sunlight reflected from Museum Tower disrupts the Nasher Sculpture Center’s carefully controlled environment, threatening the collection’s safety; the reflected light from Museum Tower has detrimentally affected the art works in the garden creating a blinding experience for visitors and necessitating the removal of several pieces including Pablo Picasso’s Nude Man and Woman; and the ongoing exposure to harsh environmental conditions at the Nasher Sculpture Center created by the Museum Tower continues to compromise the safety and integrity of the art works, both indoors and outside.”

The AAMD notes that its members are the directors of more than 220 art museums in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It noted in its statement that it “considers the preservation and care of collections to be a paramount responsibility, and believes that museums have an obligation to conserve and protect the heritage they hold in trust for the public.”

The AAMD credited Nasher founder Raymond Nasher with giving “the citizens of Texas an unparalleled museum in the heart of the Dallas Arts District and committed to making his extraordinary collection accessible to all. Designed by famed architect Renzo Piano, the Nasher is an invaluable educational, cultural and economic resource for the people of Dallas and visitors from around the world.”

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